Rotherham Titans travel to Hull Ionians this weekend, in round 6 of Nat 2 North, expecting a huge physical battle with their Yorkshire rivals; kick-off at Brantingham Park on Saturday is 3pm.
Titans, Sedgley Park and Hull Ionians all sit at the top of the table on 21 points and as such Rotherham are aware this fixture will be one of the toughest they face all season.
When the two sides last met at Brantingham Park it was in National 1, back in November 2019; the final score was a keenly fought 20-20 draw and a close game is anticipated this time around too.
Ionians come into the game on the back of a very good bonus point win away at Harrogate, whilst Roth too come into the game with confidence have beaten Fylde at Clifton Lane last week.
Rotherham have made just 3 changes to their starting XV, with Tom Lewis coming in at full back, as Lloyd Hayes moves from there into the 13 jersey, as Mat Clark drops on to the bench.
Matty Drennan will make his first start for the club at scrum half, as he replaces the injured Sam Pocklington and the final change comes at tighthead prop, as Rikki Stout is given the nod over Colin Quigley, the latter will look to make an impact from the bench.
Looking ahead to the game Titans’ Steve Salvin said:
“Ionians is a club that I have coached and I have nothing but good things to say about the place. They’ve got a lot of lads who are still there from when I was there, they are a great set of lads and there’s great people involved with the club and I’m really looking forward to going back on Saturday.
“They are immensely tough and they are immensely tight as a group and as such they will give us a real tough test and I expect nothing different from them.
“But I think you saw from our performance against Fylde last week that is starting to come with our lads as they start to build bonds. And whilst we know the challenge will be a testing one, we also know if we put in the same level of effort as we did last week, then we shouldn’t be too far away at the end.”
Titans: 15 Tom Lewis, 14 George Tucker, 13 Lloyd Hayes, 12 Harry Dunne, 11 Jamie Cooke, 10 Jonny West, 9 Matty Drennan, 1 Charlie Capps, 2 Harry Newborn, 3 Rikki Stout, 4 Matt Challinor, 5 Matt Smith, 6 Zak Poole (Capt.), 7 Harry Williams, 8 Callum Bustin.
Replacements: 23 Francis Entressengle, 17 Alex Pleasants, 18 Colin Quigley, 19 Theo Nwosu-Hope, 20 Mat Clark.
